The prime minister says the Government is focused on mitigating the impacts of severe weather events, mainly by building greater resilience in infrastructure.
Jacinda Ardern told Breakfast there is "a lot of work" for the Government to do alongside local government and communities to try and prevent the impact of severe weather events.
She appeared on Breakfast after visiting flood-hit Tairāwhiti on Sunday. The region was hit by about 48 hours of heavy rain last week, with flood waters inundating some homes and damaging key routes, such as State Highway 35.
Ardern said on Sunday: "Just getting a handle on the work that needs to be done to reinstate housing and key facilities, and also understanding what needs to be done in the long term to try and prevent the kind of damage we're seeing here again."
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The prime minister told Breakfast mitigation is needed, which includes flood prevention measurements such as stop banks and raising houses.
Ardern said the Government was already working on this, with its Emissions Reduction Plan out "very shortly" - by May 31. She also mentioned the Clean Car Standard and discount, along with "significant public transport investment" and the Government partnering with the private sector to switch out fossil fuels in manufacturing and food production - the Decarbonising Industry Fund.
Breakfast's Matty McLean said New Zealand had faced several extreme weather events in less than 10 months, with the Buller District suffering flooding in July - a one-in-100-year event - and again in February this year.
Flooding hit Canterbury from May 29 to June 1 and then again in December. The Manawatū-Whanganui region was also impacted.
The rural West Auckland community of Kumeū was hit by flooding at the end of October.
Also last week, the upper North Island was lashed with wild weather, submerging vehicles and homes in Auckland.
It comes after week's severe flooding, while contractors work to clear slips and landslides in Tairāwhiti. (Source: 1News)
The prime minister said the country has a number of areas which are vulnerable to the impacts of severe weather, which are going to be exacerbated by climate change.
Ardern said a "long term fix" was an adaptation plan, which the Government had been working on since it came to power in 2017. She said the plan will go out for consultation in a couple of months.
"But the work that we need to do needs to say to everyone from councils to insurers to us as central government, what is going to be the work that we do together to build greater resilience? Where we know we have vulnerabilities, what are the cost sharing arrangements between us all in those areas and in areas where we have really low income households? How can we fairly support those families, because often we do have low income areas getting particularly hard hit. So over the rest of this year, this is a big piece of work we will need to be in on together."
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